Concepts, operationalization &

measurementWeek 3

Professor James Byrne

Week 3: Lecture outline Literature review & Research

Evaluation Question: Tips

Clarifying Key Concepts:

Definition

Operationalization

(Measurement)

3

Sourcing your Literature

Start off by searching key terms in Google & Google Scholar This will help orient you in terms of gathering

background info on your topic Use the UML Library Online

Go into Portal Select ‘Journals’ for academic journal articles

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Writing your literature review

Your literature review must do these things: be organized around and related directly to the

thesis or research question(s) you have been developing

synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known

identify areas of controversy in the literature formulate questions that need further research

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Funnel Structure: Key points to include

Start broad; end narrow What is the crime problem your chosen intervention

seeks to address? Why is this problem important to focus on?

What is the intervention you’ve chosen? Why is this intervention important to focus on?

What are the aims of the intervention? What does past research suggest about (the

effectiveness of) this intervention? Any controversial issues?

What is your research evaluation question(s)? What are the key concepts that are included in your

question?

Literature Review

Each piece of literature should be reviewed in terms of: Aims / Research Questions addressed Methods Used Key Results Your analysis of the study

Problems, Gaps, Limitations

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Research Evaluation Question(s) Your lit review should end with a presentation of

your own research evaluation question & rationale

Your questions should be focused Must include an intervention That has been designed to address a crime problem Must focus on evaluating the effectiveness of the

intervention in terms of its specified goals

You must clearly define the concepts you are addressing in your research question(s)

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Definition of Key Concepts

Conceptualization What do you mean by the concept being

studied?If you are going to study sex offending

and recidivism: How do you define “sex offending”?

What type of offences will you focus on? How do you define “recidivism”?

What parameters will you use to define it?

You need to specify and define ALL the key concepts you wish to study 8

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Operationalization & Measurement Operationalize your concepts

How do you expect to ‘observe’ your defined concept in operation so you can measure it?

Eg. Intervention addressing Fear and Violent Crime: How will you operationalize fear of crime as you have

defined it? Operationalization - Self-reports from residents in an

area Measurement - Questionnaire item: how safe do you feel in your

house, downtown at night, etc. How will you operationalize violent crime?

Operationalization – incidents involving inter-personal violence in public places

Measure - Official QPS records of reported violent crime incidents in South Brisbane

Progression of measurement steps

Conceptualization

Conceptual definition

Operational definition

Measurements in the real world

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11

Class Discussion Round What are the key concepts in your research

evaluation question?

How will you define these concepts?

How do you think you might operationalize these concepts in order to measure them?

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Next Week Assessment 1 is due !!!